The Shield
The Shield is a professional wrestling stable in WWE consisting of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns. The group debuted in November 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, and later declared their intention to fight what they perceive as "injustice" in WWE. Ambrose currently holds the WWE United States Championship, while Reigns and Rollins previously held the WWE Tag Team Championship. The Shield are known for their black ring attire (most notably their protective vests), their tendency to approach the ring through the live audience, and their trademark promos, which are recorded from a first-person perspective using a handheld camcorder. Their gimmick is that of a stable that possesses excellent teamwork and a willingness to sacrifice themselves for the good of the stable, and which achieves victories by overwhelming opponents with superior numbers after incapacitating their teammates. History Debut and undefeated streak (2012–2013) The group debuted on November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, when the debuting Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins interfered in the main event, a triple threat match between CM Punk, John Cena, and Ryback for the WWE Championship. They powerbombed Ryback through the announcers' table, allowing Punk to pin Cena to win the match and retain his title. The group identified themselves as the "The Shield", and vowed to rally against injustice. The Shield make their entrance by walking down through the crowd. Despite claiming that they were not working for CM Punk or Paul Heyman, over the next few weeks, on both Raw and SmackDown, they would routinely emerge from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries such as Ryback, The Miz, Kane, and Daniel Bryan. They also attacked Randy Orton after he defeated Brad Maddox; Maddox was the referee who helped Punk defeat Ryback during their Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Championship. This led to their debut match at the TLC pay-per-view, where they faced Ryback and Team Hell No (Kane and Bryan) in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match and emerged victorious. After TLC, despite continuing to attack Punk's and Maddox's adversaries such as Ric Flair, Brodus Clay, and Sheamus, the Shield soon expanded their ambushes to other faces, such as Mick Foley and Ricardo Rodriguez. The Shield's attacks were also used to write off wrestlers from television via injury angles, such as Randy Orton and Sin Cara, who were already suffering from legitimate injuries. During the January 2, 2013 episode of NXT, which was taped on December 6, 2012, the Shield made their first appearance in NXT, though Reigns and Rollins had already wrestled there before and Rollins was the inaugural NXT Champion. Rollins defended his title against Corey Graves; as Graves was about to win the match, Ambrose and Reigns attacked him to cause a disqualification, but Rollins retained his title. On the January 9 episode of NXT, taped on the same date, Rollins faced Big E Langston in a no disqualification title match. The other NXT wrestlers neutralized the other Shield members, and Langston defeated Rollins to win the title. On the January 7 episode of Raw, the Shield once again aided CM Punk by attacking Ryback during their Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the WWE Championship, which resulted in Punk retaining his title. On the January 21, during the last episode of Raw before the 2013 Royal Rumble, the Shield triple-powerbombed The Rock, Punk's WWE Championship contender at the event, resulting in Vince McMahon declaring that their interference in the title match would result in Punk being stripped of the title. Four days later on SmackDown, Punk denied an alliance with the Shield before calling them out and informing them that he did not want them to interfere in his upcoming title match. However, during Punk's title match at the Royal Rumble, a blackout occurred and The Rock was attacked by the Shield in the darkness, leading to Punk pinning The Rock and retaining his title. The match was later restarted by McMahon with The Rock winning the WWE Championship. The following night on Raw, the Shield attacked John Cena; Sheamus and Ryback suffered the same fate when they attempted to save Cena. Later in the show, it was revealed through footage played by Vince McMahon that Punk's manager Paul Heyman had been paying the Shield and Brad Maddox to work for him all along. The next week on Raw, while calling out the Shield, Maddox revealed that he was the one who gave McMahon the footage. The Shield then attacked Maddox, but were forced to battle due to an attack by Cena, Ryback, and Sheamus. The Shield justified their feud with the trio due to a "decade of injustice" caused by Cena creating an environment where any wrestler would not face consequences for his actions, and whose mentality they felt had spread to other wrestlers like Ryback and Sheamus. This set up a six-man tag team match on February 17 at Elimination Chamber, which the Shield won. The Shield had their first Raw match the following night, where they defeated Ryback, Sheamus, and Chris Jericho. Sheamus then formed an alliance with Randy Orton to feud with the Shield. On the March 1 episode of SmackDown, while attacking Orton during his match with Big Show, the Shield inadvertently provoked Show into attacking them; the Shield thus started a feud with Show as well. On the March 11 episode of Raw, the Shield's first singles match occurred when Rollins faced Show; Show won via disqualification as the Shield interfered and beat him down. Despite twice helping Orton and Sheamus to fend off the Shield, Show would turn on the duo immediately after. The Shield then challenged Orton and Sheamus to find a partner and have a match with them at WrestleMania 29. Show volunteered, but Orton and Sheamus chose Ryback as their partner. Meanwhile, Mark Henry's distraction of Ryback resulted in the Shield conducting a successful assault on Ryback, resulting in Ryback being inserted into a WrestleMania match against Henry. Without a partner, Orton and Sheamus eventually accepted Show's offer to take on a common enemy despite their mistrust of him. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, the Shield took advantage of their opponents' inability to work together to win in their WrestleMania debut. Championship reigns (2013–present) The following night on Raw, the group attempted to attack The Undertaker, but were ultimately forced to retreat by Team Hell No. On the April 22 episode of Raw, the Shield faced and defeated the combination of The Brothers of Destruction and Team Hell No (Undertaker, Kane and Bryan). Four days later on SmackDown, Ambrose made his singles debut against Undertaker but lost via submission, after which the Shield attacked Undertaker and triple-powerbombed him through the announcer's table. Three days later on Raw, they defeated Team Hell No and WWE Champion John Cena in a six-man tag team match with Reigns pinning Cena for the win. Ambrose then started a feud with WWE United States Champion Kofi Kingston after pinning him in a six-man tag team match also involving The Usos. On May 19 at Extreme Rules, Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston to become the new United States Champion. Later that night, Rollins and Reigns defeated Team Hell No to become the WWE Tag Team Champions. Ambrose faced Kingston on the May 24 episode of SmackDown in a rematch for the title, and retained when Reigns and Rollins interfered causing a disqualification; Ambrose also pinned Kingston in yet another rematch for the title three days later on Raw. That same night, Rollins and Reigns retained their tag titles in a rematch for the titles against Team Hell No. On the June 14 episode of SmackDown, the Shield's unpinned/unsubmitted streak in televised six-man tag team matches came to an end at the hands of Team Hell No and Randy Orton, when Daniel Bryan submitted Seth Rollins. At WWE Payback, Ambrose defeated Kane via countout to retain the US title while Rollins and Reigns defeated Orton and Bryan to retain the tag team titles. The next night on Raw, Ambrose had a title rematch against Kane and retained after being disqualified. On the June 21 episode of Raw, The Shield attacked Christian and started a feud with him . It was also revealed that Ambrose would compete in the Money in the Bank ladder match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank. On the same Raw, it was announced that The Usos will face Rollins and Reigns for the Tag Team Championship at Money in the Bank kickoff. In wrestling *'Seth Rollins' finishing moves' **''Avada Kedavra'' (Superkick, sometimes preceded by a turnbuckle powerbomb) **''Blackout'' (Running pushing stomp to the opponent's back or back of the head of a bent over opponent) **Shiranui *'Dean Ambrose's finishing moves' **Arm trap cross-legged STF – Parodied from William Regal **''Midnight Special'' (Over the shoulder back to belly piledriver) **Running knee lift to an opponent's head – Parodied from William Regal **HeadLock Driver *'Roman Reigns' finishing moves' **''Moment of Silence'' (Back suplex side slam) **Spear *'Team' finishing moves' **''Triple Powerbomb'' Championships and accomplishments *'NXT Wrestling' **NXT Championship (1 time) - Seth Rollins *WWE **WWE Tag Team Championship - Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns (1 time) **WWE United States Championship - Dean Ambrose (1 time Current) External links * * * Category:World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables Category:2012 debuts